Opinion: Indian gaming not the only solution

Monday, February 4, 2008  

"This Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, one of the most controversial contentions coming to a polling station near you is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's personal cause célèbre-Indian gaming. Propositions 94-97 would allow four reservation casinos in San Diego and Riverside County to add 17,000 new slot machines, tripling the existing number of slots and awarding the state with billions of more dollars in compensation.

Shockingly enough, several main proponents in the gaming industry are opposing the expansion, including a number of Californian racetracks, Las Vegas casinos and two smaller Indian tribes not included in the proposed increases.

Unfortunately, there really is no easy solution to the problem of whether or not to expand an industry so prone to corruption, and the benefits of Indian gaming are less than negligible.

Reservation casinos not only contribute many millions of dollars to the tribe that can be used to beef up tribal education systems and community centers, they also provide a large crutch for the unemployment rate.

Unemployment, once at 30 percent in many tribes, has been on a sharp decline since casinos were established. Then again, these casinos also increase the prevalence of a gambling addiction, a disease that statistically plagues those who have more to lose.

So what's the answer? Criminalizing gambling on a national level would probably be as wildly successful as prohibition; it's simply not feasible to outlaw an ostensibly innocent pastime for the sole reason that it has the potential to be abused.

Instead, politicians should work toward creating systems that allocate funds more efficiently toward reservation community life.

In an ideal world, casinos would not need to be a staple of the tribal economy; hopefully, in the future, their demand will eventually decrease."

Get the Story:
Lucy Mueller: Props. 94-97: Gaming state funds (The Daily Trojan 2/4)